The current opioid crisis affecting Americans across the country is reaching a staggering level and has grown into a true public health crisis over the past few years. According to The New York Times, public health officials are calling the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015. Overdose deaths were nearly equal to the number of deaths from car crashes, and in 2015, for the first time, deaths from heroin alone surpassed gun homicides.

Health centers across the nation have been calling for the federal government to take action and in a direct response to this devastating crisis, HRSA announced last week is it awarding $200 million to health centers across the nation to tackle mental health and fight the opioid overdose crisis. These funds, titled the Access Increases for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (AIMS) Awards, are awarded to support and foster services focused on the treatment, prevention, and awareness of opioid abuse in the primary care setting by increasing personnel, leveraging health information technology, and providing training.

The funds are a part of HRSA’s five-point strategy to tackle the ongoing epidemic:

Improving access to treatment and recovery services.

Targeting use of overdose-reversing drugs.

Strengthening our understanding of the epidemic through better public health surveillance.

Providing support for cutting-edge research on pain and addiction.

Advancing better practices for pain management.

TeleQuality is excited to announce and recognize the following customers who received these grant funds: